Archive for December 16th, 2012

Clarke was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them “The Sentinel” (1951) which partially inspired Stanley Kubrick’s epic film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Clarke co-wrote the screenplay with Kubrick.

"Chesterfield Sound-Off Time" was a live, half-hour variety series on NBC-TV with Fred Allen and Bob Hope alternating at hosts, and was not very successful. However, on December 16, 1951,the show aired the pilot for "Dragnet” called “The Human Bomb”, adapted from the July 1949 radio episode. The special introduced many close-ups that would become Jack Webb’s trademark. The pilot was such a success that a regular TV series debuted in January 1952 on NBC, replacing the variety show.